Over the decades, West Bengal has given birth to various all time famous personalities. Starting from noble laureate in literature to active pioneer of social reformation systems, Bengal is still considered as a soil, where histories have sprung up. Through this section, we salute those great men, who have made a credible change in the social outlook of Bengal. Rabindra Nath Tagore [7 May 1861 (25 Boisakh 1268) - 7 August 1941 (22 Shravan 1348)], also fondly referred to as 'Kobi Guru' or 'Gurudev' was born in Jorasanko, Kolkata. His parents were Debendranath Tagore and Sarada Devi. He was a poet, visual artist, playwright, novelist, educator, social reformer, nationalist, business-manager and composer whose works reshaped Bengali literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Tagore's efforts included his vast literary canvass, where he also founded, Visva-Bharati University at Shantiniketan. He became Asia's first Nobel laureate at 1913 in field of Literature. Two of Tagore's compositions Jana Gana Mana and Amar Shonar Bangla are the national anthems of India and Bangladesh. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar (1820-1891), born in Birsingha, Midnapore, was a Bengali polymath and a pillar of the Bengal Renaissance. He was a philosopher, academician, educator, writer, translator, printer, publisher, entrepreneur, reformer, and philanthropist. His had made significant efforts to simplify and modernize Bangla prose. He also rationalized and simplified the Bengali alphabet and type into an alphabet of twelve vowels and forty consonants and his 'Borno Porichoi' is still the base of learning Bengali language. In the face of opposition from the Hindu establishment, Vidyasagar promoted the idea of best education for both men and women and introduced the practice of widow remarriages to mainstream Hindu society. Raja Ram Mohan Roy (August 14, 1772 - September 27, 1833) was born in Radhanagore, Hooghly. His influence was apparent in the fields of politics, public administration, education as well as religion. He is best known for his efforts to abolish the practice of 'Sati', the Hindu funeral practice in which the widow was compelled to sacrifice herself on her husband's funeral pyre. He also crusaded against social evils like polygamy and child marriage, and urged on property inheritance rights for women. He set up the 'Brahmo Sabha', an influential Indian socio-religious reform movement. In the year 1831 Ram Mohan Roy travelled to the United Kingdom as an ambassador and died at Bristol. Kazi Nazrul Islam (25 May 1899 - 29 August 1976) was a Bengali poet, musician, revolutionary, and philosopher who pioneered poetic works, triggering spiritual rebellion against orthodoxy and oppression. His poetry and nationalist activism earned him the popular title of Bidrohi Kobi or Rebel Poet. Accomplishing a large body of acclaimed works, Nazrul is officially recognized as the national poet of Bangladesh and commemorated in India. Nazrul's writings explore themes such as love, freedom, and revolution. He opposed bigotry, including religious and gender. He pioneered new forms of poems, such as Bengali ghazals. Nazrul wrote and composed music of nearly 4,000 songs. His songs are collectively known as Nazrul geeti (Nazrul songs), which are widely popular today. Swami Vivekananda (January 12, 1863 - July 4, 1902) was born in an aristocratic Bengali family of Calcutta. He is the key figure in the introducing Vedanta and Yoga in Europe and America and is also credited to raise interfaith awareness, bringing Hinduism to a global status during the end of the 19th Century. Swamiji is best known for his inspiring speech, which begins with "sisters and brothers of America" through which he introduced Hinduism at the Parliament of the World's Religions at Chicago in 1893. He is the founder of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, a philanthropic and spiritual organization. At Kanyakumari, Swamiji meditated on the "last bit of Indian rock", thereafter famously known as the Vivekananda Rock Memorial. Vivekananda, a renowned thinker, writer, poet in his own right, influenced the thinking of other national leaders and philosophers through his teachings. Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, a prominent leader of the Indian independence movement, was born on January 23 1897 in Cuttack, Orissa. Netaji was elected the president of Indian National Congress, but due to ideological conflicts with Mahatma Gandhi, he established a separate political party, the All India Forward Bloc and continued to call for the full and immediate independence of India from British rule. He was imprisoned by the British authorities 11 times. Later, he formed the Azad Hind Government in exile, regrouped and led the Indian National Army. Netaji is presumed to have died on 18 August 1945 in a plane crash over Taiwan. However, there are few contradictory evidences regarding his death in the accident. Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose (November 30, 1858 - November 23, 1937) was a physicist, biologist, botanist, archaeologist, and also a writer of science fiction. He pioneered the investigation of radio and microwave optics, made very significant contributions to plant science, and laid the foundations of experimental science in the subcontinent. He is considered as one of the pioneers of radio science, and is also considered to be the father of Bengali science fiction. J.C Bose made remarkable progress in his research of remote wireless signaling and was the first to use semiconductor junctions to detect radio signals. He made some pioneering discoveries in plant physiology as well. He used his own invention- the crescograph, to measure plant response to various stimuli. Sri Aurobindo (August 15, 1872 - December 5, 1950) was an Indian nationalist and freedom fighter, poet, philosopher, and yogi. He joined the movement for India's freedom from British rule for a period of 1905-1910, became one of its most important leaders, before turning to developing his own vision and philosophy of human progress and a spiritual path which he termed Integral Yoga. He has written over a hundred poems, many plays and several books during his life. Aurobindo provided the ideological foundation to the ultra-radical Jugantar party, which is an offshoot of the Anushilan Samiti. In Pondicherry, Sri Aurobindo completely dedicated himself to his spiritual and philosophical pursuits. Mother Teresa (August 26, 1910 - September 5, 1997) was an Albanian Roman Catholic nun with an Indian citizenship, who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata in 1950. For over 45 years she dedicated her life to the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying, while guiding the Missionaries of Charity's expansion, first throughout India and then globally. She was internationally famed as a humanitarian and advocate for the poor and helpless. She won the Nobel Prize in Peace in 1979 and India's highest civilian honor, the Bharat Ratna, in 1980 for her humanitarian work. Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity continued to expand and by the time of her death it was operating 610 missions in 123 countries. Amartya Sen (born 3 November 1933) is an economist, Professor in Thomas W. Lamont University and Professor in Economics and Philosophy at Harvard University. He is well known "for his contributions to welfare economics" for his work on famine, human development theory, welfare economics, the underlying mechanisms of poverty, gender inequality, and political liberalism. He won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1998 for his work on welfare economics. He also received the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award in India in 1999.